Alabama Republicans have passed a law that would limit teaching about controversial ideas at state universities and also stop diversity, fairness, and inclusion (DEI) programs and prevent transgender students from using bathrooms that match their gender identity.
Late last month, PEN America stated that Alabama’s S.B. 129 is “the most harmful educational restriction affecting higher education since Florida’s Stop WOKE Act.”
The bill stops state agencies, local education boards, and public higher education institutions from supporting DEI programs, maintaining DEI departments, and making students, employees, and contractors participate in DEI training. It also forbids these entities from requiring “any training, orientation, or course work that supports or demands agreement with a controversial concept.”
The law defines a “controversial concept,” in part, as stating that “because of a person’s race, color, religion, sex, ethnicity, or national origin, the person is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or subconsciously” or that they “are inherently responsible for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race, color, religion, sex, ethnicity, or national origin.”
However, it allows state universities to teach or discuss “any controversial concept in an objective manner and without approval” as long as “the institution and its employees do not force agreement with any controversial concept.” Under the suggested law, students, staff, and faculty groups would be allowed to hold DEI “programs or discussions that may involve controversial concepts, provided that no state funds are used to sponsor these programs.
Alabama Republicans also added a ban on transgender individuals using bathrooms, requiring state universities to “make sure that every restroom used by multiple people is designated for use by individuals based on their biological sex.”
Critics say the law’s unclear language and its allowance for state universities to “punish or fire” employees who intentionally disobey it will have a chilling effect, with schools getting rid of DEI initiatives and prohibiting “controversial concepts” completely, according to the New York Times. Student groups, civil rights advocates, and Alabama Democrats, who have highlighted the state’s racist past, argue S.B. 129 would undermine free speech and efforts to diversify college campuses.
Describing the law as even more limiting than Florida’s Stop WOKE Act, PEN America said it would result in “a campus environment without intellectual freedom.”
S.B. 129 will now be considered by Gov. Kay Ivey (R). If she approves the law, it will take effect on October 1.
